64 Million American Kids Between 2-17 Are Core Gamers

A new research study from the NPD group surveyed a numbered of kids and their parents and found that more than 64 million Americans between the age of 2 and 17 play video games. What’s more is that the numbers correlate to more than 91 percent of that age group being gamers. Do you know what that means? It means you were right in thinking that all those little brats flooding into Call of Duty has become a larger portion of the gaming demographic than ever before.

"Year-to-date through August 2011, kids comprised 44 percent of new physical software dollar sales, representing a vitally important consumer segment for the games industry," … "Knowing how kids are spending their gaming time and dollars in both traditional and non-traditional outlets is key to staying relevant to this highly engaged audience."

What’s more is that the population growth of Americans between 2-17 has only grown by 1.54 and yet a whopping majority of them happen to be gamers. Since 2009 a lot of these gamers have migrated over to mobile devices, showing a 39 percent growth rate over 2009’s meager 8 percent growth.

The data coincides with marketing firm, Leadbolt, and their estimations that by 2013 there will be more than 91.5 million mobile gamers and more than 31.5 million mobile coupon users.

I’m betting developers like Zynga and Rovio Mobile are just drooling over the possibilities of tapping that market with casual consumer traps like Mafia Wars and Angry Birds.

The research data from the NPD group was called Kids and Gaming 2011, with the study taking place in early August of this year. More than 4,136 individuals between 2 and 17 participated in the survey, with mothers helping the young ones who were apparently too young to communicate effectively yet had ample enough skills and coordination to play video games.